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TXriff  Reform. 

PUBLISUBD  SSMI-MONTHIiT  BT  THB  TARIFF  REFORM  COMlflTTBE  OF  THE  REFORM  ClUB. 

Publication  Office,  No.  62  William  Street,  New  York  City. 
Entered  at  the  Pobt-Office,  New  York,  as  Sbcond-Clabs  Matter. 


YoL  m,  No.  3. 


NEW  YORK,  MARCH  28.  1890. 


Price,  Three  Oenti. 


Each  number  will  contain  a  Special  Discussion  of  some  feature  of  our  Tariff. 


*'  Can  there  he  a  higher  o fence  than  a  deliberate  pei'wrtion  of  Mttoryforapa/rtiaan  pur- 
pose  f  It  is  an  offence  that  no  man  should  he  permitted  to  perpetrate,  mthout  some  rebuke, 
however  great  his  talents  or  high  his  position.  Indeed,  the  greater  his  talents  and  the  higher 
the  position  of  the  man  vho  commits  the  offbnce,  the  greater  the  offence  becomes.  For,  of  the 
thousands  who  may  see  a  mis-statement  of  historical  fact,  made  by  such  a  man,  in  the  most 
dogmatic  manner,  feto  tnU  sttspect,  for  i  moment,  that  the  statement  is  not  only  whoUy 
grountUess  but  is  at  utter  variance  with  the  truth." 


MR.   BLAINE   ON  TARIFFS. 

An  Examination  of  his  Article  in  the  **  North  American  RcTiew." 

|By  J.  Q.  Smith.  ' 

<Reprinted  from  the  NetdlYork  Weekly  Pott.) 

PAoa 
NATURE  OF  :MR.  BLAINE'S  ABGUMEjST,       -       -       -       -    38 

COMPARATIVE    PROSPERITY    UNDER    VARIOUS     TAR- 
IFFS, - 88 

Early  Tariffs,  1789-1816, 88 

The  Tariff  of  1816,  88 

The  Tariff  of  1824, 40 

The  Compromise  Tariff  of  1888,     ---'•--"-  40 

The  Tariff  of  1842, 41 

Thb  "Free  Trade"  Tariffs  of  1846  and  1867,    -       -       -       -       -  42 

The  War  Tabiff»--1861  to  Date,  -       - 45 

MORAL  QUESTIONS, 46 


m 


TARIFF  REFORM. 


NATURE    OF   MR.    BLAINE'S   ARGUMENT. 


Can  there  be  a  higlier  offense  than  a  deliberate  perversion  of  history  for  a  partisan 
purpose?  it  is  an  offence  that  no  man  should  be  permitted  to  perpetrate  without  some 
rebuke,  however  gre;;i  his  talents  or  high  I;i8  position.  Indeed,  the  greater  his  talents 
and  the  loftier  the  position  of  the  man  who  commits  the  offence,  the  greater  the  offence 
becomes.  For  of  the  thousands  who  may  see  a  misstatement  of  historical  fact  made  by 
such  a  man  in  the  most  dogmatic  manner,  few  will  suspect  for  a  moment  that  the  state- 
ment is  not  only  wholly  groundless,  but  is  at  utter  variance  with  the  truth. 

This  is  the  offence  that  Mr.  Blaine,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  is  guilty  of  in  his 
recent  article  in  the  Sorth  American  Review  in  reply  to  an  article  by  Mr.  Qladstone  on 
"  Free  Trade." 

Mr.  Blaine  does  not  attempt  to  argue  the  question  in  dispute  as  a  question  o'^  prin- 
ciple. Conceding  that  free  trade  may  be  good  policy  for  England,  he  again  and  again 
asserts  that  we  have  found  by  more  than  nfty  y«;ars  of  experience  that  protection  is  the 
true  policy  for  us.  He  relies  wholly  on  alleged  results  to  establish  the  conclusion  that 
the  protective  policy  is  that  which,  from  the  organization  of  the  government  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  has  always  been  the  prolific  source  of  our  highest  prosperity.  If  the  historical 
statements  on  which  he  relies  arc  not  true,  nay,  if  they  are  directly  opposed  and  en- 
tirely contrary  to  the  truth,  of  course  the  wbele  fabric  of  his  argument  topples  over  and 
tumbles  down.  

COMPARATIVE  PROSPERITY  UNDER  VARIOUS  TARIFFS. 


BAllLY  TARIFFS— 1789-1816. 

In  the  article  in  the  North  American  Review,  Mr.  Blaine  only  goes  back  .to  the  war 
of  1812  in  order  to  prove  that  pn)tective  tariffs  have  been  beneficial.  A  year  ago,  in  his 
speech  at  the  Polo  Grounds  in  New  York,  he  went  back  to  the  first  tariff— that  of  1789 
— which  he  assumed  to  be  a  protective  tariff.  He  asserted  that  under  that  "  protective" 
tariff  this  country  had  been  wonderfully  prosperous;  that  a  prosperity  which  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  whole  world  marked  the  period  of  its  existence.  He  asserted  that 
all  departments  of  business,  agricultural,  manufacturing  and  commercial,  had  been  ex- 
ceedingly profitable.  But  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  state  in  that  speech  that  the  tariff  law  of 
1789  levied  the  lowest  rates  of  duties  we  have  ever  had,  averat^ing  only  8J^  per  tent. 
He  called  it  a  "protective"  tariff,  and  attributed  all  the  marvelous  prosperity  that  fol- 
lowed for  twenty-three  years  to  its  protective  provisions.  He  took  the  trouble  to  tell 
us  that  from  time  to  time  the  law  was  slightly  amended,  and  generally  in  the  direction 
of  higher  rates,  but  he  was  careful  not  to  say  that  the  average  rate  of  duties  from  the 
organization  of  the  Government  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  England  was,  as  a 
rule,  about  18  per  cent.,  or  a  great  deal  less  than  one  half  of  our  present  tariff  rates. 

THE  TARIFF  OF  1816. 

To  make  Mr.  Blaine's  history  perfect,  he  should  have  repeated  the  history  em- 
braced in  his  New  York  speech  a  year  ago.  But  he  has  not.  Yet  what  he  does  say  in 
the  North  AmerpMn  Review  is  quite  as  open  to  criticism.  He  says:  "  On  the  eve  of  the 
war  of  1812  Congress  guarded  the  national  strength  by  enacting  a  highly  protective  war 
tariff.  By  its  own  terras  this  tariff  must  end  with  the  war.  When  the  new  tariff  was 
to  be  formed,  a  popular  cry  rose  against  'war  duties,'  though  the  country  had  pros- 
pered despite  the  exhausting  effect  of  the  struggle  with  Great  Britain.  But  the  prayer 
of  the  people  was  answered,  and  the  war  duties  were  dropped  from  the  tariff  of  1816. " 

There  are  several  statements  in  this  extract  tl«nt  require  correction.  Mr.  Blaine 
says  that  Congress  "  guarded  the  national  strength  by  a  highly  protective  tariff  law." 
What  Congress  did  do  was  to  double  the  rates  of  duties  as  a  revenue  measure,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  protection  at  all.  It  was  provided  in  the  act  increasing  the  rate  of 
duties  that,  as  soon  as  the  war  closed,  the  increase  should  be  taken  off.  This  was 
actually  done,  and  the  old  low  rates  were  restored.  Consequently  there  was  no  popu- 
lar cry  raised  against  "  war  duties."  They  had  already  been  removed  by  the  very  act 
that  created  them.  Therefore,  they  were  not  "dropped"  from  the  tariff  law  of  1816. 
That  law  was  a  law  to  increase  duties,  not  to  reduce  them.  It  was  the  first  of  our  long 
series  of  tariff  laws  enacted  distinctly  and  avowedly  for  the  sake  of  protection.  CoL 
Benton  says:  "The  question  of  protection  for  the  sake  of  protection  was  brought  for- 
ward and  carried  (in  the  year  1816).  This  reversed  the  old  course  of  legislation;  made 
protection  the  object  instead  of  the  incident,  and  revenue  the  incident  instead  of  the  ob- 
ject." Speaking  in  1824,  Mr.  Webster  said:  "  We  hear  of  the  fatal  policy  of  the  tariff 
of  IS16.  And  yet  the  law  of  1816  was  passed  avowedly  for  the  benefit  of  manufactur 
ers,  and,  with  very  few  exceptions,  imposed  on  imported  articles  very  great  additions 
of  tax,  in  some  important  instances,  indeed,  amounting  to  prohibition."  In  his  debate 
with  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  the  Senate  in  1888,  Mr.  Olay  made  a  similar  declaration.    When 


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COMPARATIVE  PROSPIJIUTY  UNDKR  VARIOUS  TARIFFS. 


89 


a  partisan 
,hout  some 
his  talents 
the  offence 
ct  made  by 
it  the  state- 
ly of  in  hi« 
adstone  on 

on  o'l  prin- 
1  and  again 
sction  is  the 
elusion  that 
to  tl»e  pres- 
tie  historical 
;ed  and  en- 
les  over  and 


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ago,  in  his 


-that  of  1789 
"protective" 
lich  nttracted 
asserted  that 
[lad  been  ex- 
tariff  law  of 
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erity  that  fol- 
rouble  to  tell 
the  direction 
ties  from  the 
and  was,  as  a 
iriff  rates. 


I 


e  history  em- 
he  does  say  in 
the  eve  of  the 
protective  war 
new  tariff  was 
ntry  had  pros- 
Jut  the  prayer 
iriff  of  1816." 
n.     Mr.  Blaine 
ve  tariff  law." 
easure,  not  for 
ag  the  rate  of 
off.    This  was 
8  was  no  popu- 
by  the  very  act 
iff  law  of  1816. 
first  of  our  long 
rotection.    Col. 
as  brought  for- 
•gislation;  made  \ 
iBtead  of  the  ob- 
licy  of  the  tanfc 
of  manufactur-  " 
great  additions 
"    In  his  debate 
laration.    When 


Mr.  Blaine  assumes  tliiii  tin:  tmifT  of  1816  was  not  (iistincily  a  protective  tariiT,  he  does 
so  in  totttl  (iisregnnl  not  only  of  every  authority,  but  of  every  fact  in  connection  with  it. 
B«twcen  1804  and  1811.  inclusive,  duties  on  imported  goods  averaged  18.49  per  cent. 
Bt'tween  1817  and  1824,  inclusive,  they  averaged  27.67  per  cent.  Tiiesc  flgtires  show 
thai  the  Tariff  Act  of  1816  WHS  an  Increase  of  duties  of  about  50  per  cent,  ovir  tiiose 
that  Imd  obtiiinetl  from  the  organization  of  the  Government.  And  we  have  the  positive 
te>iitn«>My  of  Col.  Benton,  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  that  the  increase  was  miule,  not 
to  secure  an  increase  of  revenue,  but  for  the  sake  of  protection. 

Another  mistake  that  Mr.  Blaine  makes  in  the  extrnct  quoted  is  that  the  country 
was  prosperous  under  the  war  duties,  dcspke  the  exliaustinu:  effect  of  the  struggle  with 
Great  Britain.  Tiie  country  was  not  prosperous.  Its  business  was  almost  paralyzed. 
Our  exports  were  reduced  from  $45,000,000  in  1811  to  less  than  |7,000,000  in  1814. 
Our  shipping  was  almost  driven  from  the  ocean.  There  was  scarcely  any  market  for 
our  surplus  produce  at  any  price.  Prices  of  manufactured  goods  rnii  to  enormous 
figures.  The  great  interest  of  the  country  was  agriculture,  and  its  condition  was  de- 
plorahle.  BtU  we  «lid  have  a  high  tariff  for  about  two  years  and  a  half,  and  Mr.  Blaine's 
theory  requires  him  to  find  that  under  It,  In  despite  of  the  war,  the  country  was  pros- 
porous.  The  facts  are  all  against  him,  tremendously  against  him;  but  lie  docs  not  falter 
or  hesitate  in  asserting  that  the  false  is  true. 

After  assuming  that  duties  were  reduced  by  the  tariff  of  1816,  Mr.  Blaine  goes  on 
to  s;>y:  "The  people  were  soon  reduced  to  great  distress,  to  as  great  di.stresa  as  in  that 
melancholy  period  between  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  and  the  organization  of 
the  national  Government — 1783  to  1789.  Col.  Benton's  vivid  description  of  tiie  period 
of  depression  following  the  reduction  of  duties  comnri.ses  in  a  few  11  es  a  whole  chapter 
of  the  history  of  free  trade  In  the  United  States:  *  No  price  for  prr»perty;  no  sales  except 
those  of  the  sheriff  and  marshal;  no  purchasers  at  execution  sales,  except  the  creditor 
or  some  hoarder  of  money;  no  employment  for  industry;  no  demand  for  labor;  no  sale 
of  tiie  products  of  the  farm;  no  sound  of  the  l)ainmcr  except  that  of  the  auctioneer 
knocking  down  property.  Distress  was  the  universal  crv  of  the  people;  relief,  the  uni- 
versal demand.'"  This  was  the  terrible  condition  of  the  country  in  1819-1820  as 
described,  no  dotibt  truly,  by  Col.  Benton;  and  which  Mr.  Blaine  assures  us  comprise*- 
"a  whole  chapter  of  the  history  of  free  trade  in  the  United  States."  This  is  a  grave- 
accusation,  and  should  be  carefully  examined. 

If  the  condition  of  the  country,  as  Col.  Benton  describes  i»,  was  actually  brought 
about,  as  Mr.  Blaine  seeks  to  make  us  believe,  by  a  tariff  reduction  in  1816,  and,  further, 
if  no  other  cause  can  be  found,  it  must  be  conceded  that  Mr.  Blaine  has  made  a  strong 
point  in  favor  of  a  !ngh  tariff  seventy  four  ye.irs  ago.  But  even  If  that  were  true,  there 
might  still  remain  a  question  (under  Mr.  Blaine's  theory  that  the  .suitability  of  a  hi<?h 
or  low  tariff  depends  wholly  on  the  conditir.n  of  the  country  In  which  it  is  applied), 
whether  in  consideration  of  the  enormous  change  that  has  taken  place  in  Ihis  country 
since  1816,  the  illustration  would  be  of  any  value.  It  would  be  difficult  for  Mr.  BIaiwt«' 
show  that  there  is  a  greater  difference  between  the  business  conditions  of  this  countrF 
and  Great  Britain  now  than  is  found  between  this  country  in  1816  and  now.  That  is, 
Mr.  Blaine  would  be  compelled  to  confess  that,  by  his  own  logic  (not  Mr.  Gladstone's),* 
thf  illustration  he  has  so  ostentatiously  prodticed  to  show  that  a  high  tariff  is  desirable 
for  this  country  in  the  year  1890  Is  utterly  worthless. 

But  let  us  examine  this  chapter  of  history  a  little  tnore  carefully,  to  ascertain 
whether  at  any  titne,  or  In  any  coimtry,  or  under  any  condition  of  things,  It  bears  the 
significance  that  Mr.  Blaine  attributes  to  it. 

In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Blaine's  assumption  that  the  distressing  condition  of  things 
in  1819  and  1820  was  caused  by  a  free  trade  reduction  of  the  tariff  is  wholly  overthrown 
by  the  simple  fact  that  the  tariff  was  not  reduced,  but  largely  increased  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  protection  as  testified  by  Col.  Benton,  yir.  Webster  and  .Mr.  Clay.  It  might 
be  argued  that  the  increase  of  tariff  duties  in  1816  proiluced  the  disastrous  con.sequences 
found  four  years  later.  Whether  that  argument  vvould  be  sound  or  not.  It  would  at 
least  not  be  totally  absurd. 

But  in  order  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  real  cause  of  the  deplorable  state  of  affairs 
existing  in  1819-1820,  I  will  quite  the  whole  passage  from  Col.  Benton  from  which  Mr. 
Blaine  has  extracted  a  few  line.s,  that,  in  his  opinion,  contain  "a  whole  chapter  of  tlie 
history  of  free  trade  in  the  United  States."  "The  Bank  of  the  United  States,"  says 
Col  Benton.  "  was  cV  artered  in  1816,  and  before  1820  had  performed  one  of  its  cycles 
of  ilelusive  and  bubble  prosperity,  followed  by  actual  and  widespread  calamity.  The 
whole  paper  system,  of  which  it  was  the  head  and  citadel  after  a  vast  expansion,  had 
si^iddenly  collapsed,  spreading  desolation  over  the  land,  ami  carrying  ruin  to  debtors. 
The  years  1819-1820  were  a  period  of  gloom  and  agony.  No  money,  either  gold  or 
siiver;  no  paper  convertible  into  specie;  no  mcaatire  or  standard  of  value  remaining. 
The  local  banks  (all  but  those  of  New  England)  after  a  brief  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments, again  sank  into  a  state  of  suspension.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  created 
as  a  remedy  for  all  those  evils,  now  at  the  head  of  the  evil,  prostrate  and  helpless,  witli 


40 


TARIFF  REFORM. 


no  power  left  but  that  of  suing  Its  tlebtors,  and  selling  their  properly,  and  purchasing 
for  itself  at  its  own  nominal  price.  No  price  for  property  or  produce.  No  sales  hut 
those  of  the  sheriff  and  the  miirsiial.  No  purchaser  at  execution  sales,  but  the  creditor, 
or  some  hoarder  of  money.  No  employment  for  industry;  no  demand  for  labor;  no  sale 
for  the  product  of  the  farm;  no  sound  of  the  hammer  but  that  of  the  auctioneer  knock- 
ing down  property.  Stop  laws,  property  laws,  replevin  laws,  stay  laws,  loan-offlce  laws, 
the  intervention  of  the  legislator  between  the  creditor  and. the  debtor;  this  was  the  busi- 
ness of  legislation  in  three-fourths  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  of  all  south  and  west  of 
New  Englnnd.  No  medium  of  exchange  but  depreciated  paper;  no  change  even,  but 
little  bits  of  foul  paper  marked  as  so  many  cents  and  signed  by  some  tradesman,  barber, 
or  inn-keeper;  exchange  deranged  to  the  extent  of  50  or  100  per  cent.  Distress  the  uni- 
versal cry  of  the  people;  relief  the  universal  demand  thundered  at  the  doors  of  all  Leg- 
islatures, State  and  Federal." 

Col.  Benton  was  an  anti-protective  tarifif  man.  But  in  the  above  extract  he  was 
writing  history,  and  giving  the  true  and  sufficient  cause,  as  he  saw  it,  for  the  most  bitter 
and  agonizing  financial  distress  this  nation  has  ever  experienced.  He  finds  no  occasion 
to  seek  in  the  protective  tarifif  of  1816,  whether  it  was  right  or  wrong,  wise  or  unwise, 
the  source  of  the  evils  he  so  vividly  depicts. 

Lest  Mr.  Blaine  should  say  that  Col.  Benton's  intense  hostility  to  bank  paper  in- 
fluenced his  judgment  in  making  up  his  terrible  indictment  of  the  cause  that  produced 
the  distress,  [  will  quote  anotlier  authority  against  whom  no  such  allegation  nan  be 
made.  Speaking  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1824,  and  speaking  of  the  distress 
of  1819,  Mr.  Webster  said:  "  I  regard  it  [the  issue  of  paper  money]  as  a  very  productive 
cause  of  those  difficulties."  Again:  "I  regard,  sir,  this  issue  of  irredeemable  paper  as 
the  most  prominent  and  deplorable  cause  of  whatever  pressure  still  exists  in  tlie 
country." 

Col.  Benton  and  Mr.  Webster  were  no  ordinary  men,  or  careless  students  of  public 
affairs.  In  1820  they  were  men  of  high  repute,  and  occupied  lofty  positions.  Mr. 
Webster  expressed  at  the  time  his  opinion  of  the  cause  that  produced  the  public  distress 
of  1819  (which  was  not  dissipated  in  1824).  Col.  Benton  expressed  his  opinion  of  the 
same  matter  more  than  thirty  years  after,  and  Col.  Benton's  opinion  and  Mr.  Webster's 
opinion  are  in  strict  accord.  Neither  of  them  ever  dreamed  that  the  exciting  cause  was 
to  be  Iroked  for  in  the  tarifif  act  of  1816. 

The  fact  stated  by  Col.  Benton  that  "  relief  was  the  universal  demand  thundered  at 
the  doors  of  all  State  Legislatures  "  proves  that  by  the  universal  judgment  of  the  people 
the  distress  was  not  caused  by  the  taviff.  Stale  Legislatures  have  nothing  to  do  with 
tariffs.  But  at  that  time  they  had  i. early  everything  to  do  with  bank  paper.  This 
tstatement  of  Col.  Benton  Mr.  Blaine  was  careful  to  omit  from  his  quotation. 

The  only  conclusion  that  can  be  drawn  from  the  recital  of  this  chapter  of  our 
history,  is  that  Mr.  Blaine's  stattmienis  in  regard  to  it  are  wholly  incorrect  and  mislead- 
ing both  in  regard  to  fact  and  inference. 

THE  TARIFF  OP   1824. 

Mr.  Blaine  goes  on  to  say;  "  Relief  came  at  last  with  the  enactment  of  the  protective 
tarifif  of  1824.  The  Act,  supplemented  by  the  Act  of  1828,  brought  genuine  prosperity 
to  the  country.  Plenty  and  prosperity  followed  as  if  by  magic.  The  seven  years  pre- 
ceding the  enactment  of  tlie  protective  tariff  of  1824  were  the  most  discouraging  that 
the  young  republic  in  its  brief  life  had  encountered,  and  tlie  seven  years  which  followed 
its  enactment  were  beyond  precedent  the  most  prosperous  and  happy." 

The  seven  years  preceding  the  enactment  of  the  tarifif  of  1824  were,  as  we  have  seen 
by  the  testimony  of  Col.  Benton  and  Mr.  Webster,  and  from  the  cause  that  they  so 
clearly  and  strongly  state,  very  discouraging  indeed.  But  during  all  this  period  the 
country  had  been  blessed  (or  cursed)  with  a  tarifif  increased  above  former  experience  50 
per  cent,  for  the  purpose,  as  Col  Benton  says,  of  "  protection  for  the  sake  of  protec- 
tion," in  which,  as  he  says,  "  protection  was  the  object  and  revenue  the  incident,"  and 
which  Mr.  Webster  declares  was  "  passed  avowedly  for  the  benefit  of  manufacturers, 
and,  with  very  few  exceptions,  imposed  on  imported  articles  very  great  additions  of 
tax;  in  some  important  instances,  indeed,  amounting  to  prohibition."  It  follows,  there- 
fore, that  the  country  had  a  protective  tarifif  of  the  most  pronounced  character  during 
the  entire  period  of  the  seven  years  tiiat  "  were  the  most  discouraging  the  young 
republic  in  its  brief  life  had  encountered."  If  Mr.  Blaine  can  get  any  comfort  out  of 
all  this  for  his  favorite  delusion,  he  is  most  welcome  to  it. 

TUB  TARIFF  OF   1883. 

The  Tarifif  Law  of  1883  was  passed  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Clay.  It  provided, 
as  Mr.  Blaine  says,  for  a  gradual  reduction  of  the  rate  of  duties.  He  says  of  it:  "Be- 
fore the  sliding  scale  was  ruinously  advanced,  there  was  a  great  stimulus  to  manufac- 
turin"*  and  to  trade,  which  finally  assumed  the  form  of  dangerous  speculation."  Mark 
this  language.     The  reduction  of  the  tariff  and  the  certain  and  constant  yearly  reduc- 


COMPARATIVE  PROSPERITY  UNDER  VARIOUS  TARIFFS. 


41 


tion  Btimultited  manufacturing  and  trade.  I  am  not  at  this  moment  disputing  the  fact. 
But  if  it  be  true  that  in  1888  a  reduction  of  the  tariff  of  10  per  cent.,  and  certain  yearly 
future  reductions,  stimulated  manufacturing  and  trade,  does  not  the  fact  prove  beyond 
all  question  that  the  tariff  rates  before  1888  were  unnecessarily  liigh?  True,  Mr.  Blaine 
says  that  this  8timuIa^ion  took  place  before  the  reductions  were  ruinously  advanced. 
He  does  not  tell  us  when  that  period  arrived.  But  a  reduction  of  duties  to  the  extent 
of  10  or  20  or  80  per  cent,  actuallv  stimulated  manufacturing.  This  seems  totally  con- 
trary to  every  argument  ever  made  before  in  favor  of  high  duties.  Might  not  a  reduc- 
tion of  10  or  20  or  80  per  cent,  now  gives  a  "great  stimulus"  to  manufacturing?  Mr. 
Blaine  says  that  this  stimulation  "Anally  assumed  the  form  of  dangerous  speculation." 
Can  Mr.  Blaine  explain  why  there  sliould  be  a  more  rapid  production  of  manufactured 
goods  on  a  marlcet  that  was  falling,  and  certain  to  keep  on  falling?  Can  he  explain  in 
what  way  glutted  and  falling  markets  lead  to  "dangerous  speculations?  "  Is  it  possible 
that,  when  Mr.  Blaine  penned  that  piirairraph,  he  did  not  perceive  that  he  was  falsify- 
ing history  and  violating  common  sense? 

There  was  a  perio<l  of  dangerous  speculation  that  followed,  in  a  few  years,  the  re- 
ductions provided  for  in  the  tariff  of  1888.  But  it  arose  from  causes  wholly  foreign  to 
the  changes  of  the  tariff.  About  1828  or  1830,  the  country  entered  again  on  a  period 
of  wila  inflation  of  paper  money.  A  large  part  of  the  business  of  our  State  Legisla- 
tures was  in  passing  bills  incornoratiug  banlts.  Every  village  all  over  tiie  South  and 
West  had  to  have  Its  bank.  These  banks  were  authorized  to  issue  notes.  By  188tf 
there  were  750  banks  chartered.  Probably  500  of  them  were  of  the  class  known  at  the 
time  as  "wild  cat  "or  "red  dog"  banks.  Those  bunks  were,  as  a  rule,  required  to 
keep  in  their  vaults— perhaps  an  old  chest — a  certain  amount  of  specie.  But  there  was 
no  rigid  supervision  of  them.  They  did  as  tliey  pleased,  and  a  compliance  with  the 
law,  if  it  ever  was  complied  with,  was  exceptional.  The  country  went  mad  over  these 
banks.  Their  paper  bills  became  as  plentiful  as  "Autumnal  leaves  that  strew  the  woods 
in  Vallambrosa."  Prices  of  property  rose  out  of  all  reason.  Speculation  not  only 
reached  the  point  of  danger,  but  it  reached  the  point  of  frenzy. 

Now,  the  tariff,  high  or  low,  protective  or  free  trade,  had  about  as  much  to  do  with 
this  as  the  murder  of  Julius  Csesar.  But  every  one  thought  he  wtis  getting  rich.  Ex- 
travagance of  expenditure  was  seen  on  every  hand.  Our  imports  exceeded  our  exports 
in  1886  by  more  than  $50,000,000;  in  1889  by  more  than  |;44,000,000.  These  sums 
would  be  equal  to  (probably)  $500,000,000  now.  Great  schemes  of  public  works  were 
undertaken.  The  particular  form  of  speculation  throughout  the  West  that  had  most 
favor  was  the  purchase  of  wild  lands.  Every  man  who  could  get,  by  hook  or  crook,  a 
hundred  dollars  rushed  off  to  the  Land  Office  and  entered,  in  the  cant  of  the  day,  "an 
eighty."  As  long  as  a  bank  redeemed  its  notes  in  specie,  they  were  taken  at  the  land 
offices.  The  land  sales  were  running  up  to  $5,000,000  a  month.  The  funds  of  the 
United  States  Treasury  were  removed  from  the  United  States  Bank  and  deposited  with 
"  pet "  State  banks.  This  added  to  the  means  and  spirit  of  speculation.  Many  millions 
of  Treasury  surplus  were  distributed  among  the  States.  This  money  was  largely  squan- 
dered in  the  most  extravagant  ways.     Everything  added  to  the  fierce  fire. 

By  the  summer  of  1836  the  President  became  alarmed,  and  issued  his  celebrated 
specie  circular  directing  that  only  gold  and  silver  should  be  received  in  payment  for 
public  lands.  This  was  the  first  check.  Col.  Benton  savs  that  at  the  time  the  circular 
was  issued  $10,000,000  of  the  miserable  paper  trash  called  money  was  on  its  way  to  the 
land  offices  to  pay  for  land.  The  banks  soon  had  to  suspend,  but  the  country  was  still 
flooded  with  their  notes.  Most  of  them,  however,  staggered  along  for  two  or  three 
years.  But  in  1839  the  United  Slates  Bank,  which  had  been  re-chartered  by  Pennsyl- 
vania, went  down  with  a  great  crash.  Its  capital  stock  of  $85,000,000  was  worthless,  its 
creditors  lost  $20,000,000.  Before  long  the  country  banks  went  down  in  sqiuidrons. 
Their  paper  was  as  worthless  its  the  ra^s  of  which  it  was  made.  About  1840-1841  the 
country  was  in  precisely  the  same  conditions  that  it  was  in  1819-1820  and  from  precisely 
the  same  cause.  The  reduction  of  the  tariff  of  1838  had  no  more  to  do,  probably  not  as 
much  to  do,  with  the  distress  of  1840-1841  as  the  increase  of  the  tariff  of  1816  had  to  do 
with  the  distress  of  1819-1820. 

Of  course  Mr.  Blaine  is  entitled  to  believe  whatever  he  pleases  about  this  or  any 
other  matter,  liut  before  he  asks  us  to  believe  that  all  these  calamities  were  tlie  results 
of  tlie  "great  stimulus  to  manufacturing  and  trade"  superinduced  by  the  reductions  of 
the  tariff  of  1838,  he  must  give  us  some  intelligible  explanation  of  how  it  operated  to 
produce  that  effect. 

THE  TARIFF  OF  1842. 

In  speakingof  the  recovery  of  the  country  from  the  calamities  and  disasters  of 
1840-1841,  Mr.  Blaine  says:  "  t'here  was  no  relief  to  the  people  until  the  tariff  of  1843 
was  enacted,  and  then  the  beneficent  experience  of  1824  was  repeated  on  even  a  more 
extensive  scale.  Prosperity,  wide  and  general,  was  at  once  restored."  Prosperity  was 
not  "  at  once  restored.*'    It  was  only  restored  after  long  waiting  and  much  weary  effort. 


TARIFF  RKFORM. 


There  lire  in  iLe  quarterly  report  of  the  Ihireuu  of  StntiHtics  for  March,  1886,  tables 
showing  the  fiveruge  prict-b  of  sta|>lc  articles  Id  the  New  York  market  for  each  year  from 
1825  to  1880.  Ad  cxaniiuatiou  of  thcne  tables  will  show  Mr.  Ulaiiie  that  for  each  of  the 
3'ear8  1843,  1844  and  1845,  the  average  prkes  of  wheat,  corn,  oats,  barley,  rye,  cotton, 
pork,  L'.'ef.  butter,  cheese,  Ininis,  lard,  uud  tobacco  were  all  far  below  the  mean  average 
prices  of  the  same  articles  for  the  flfty-tive  years  emnruced  in  tlie  tablen.  The  price  of 
cotton  during  those  three  Years  did  not  at  an^' time  rise  to  half  the  average  price  that 
obtained  between  1825  and  1830.  Tobacco  did  not  in  either  o!  those  years  reach  60  per 
cent,  of  the  average  price.  It  was  not  until  184*"  that  corn,  wheat,  oats,  butter,  cheese, 
beef,  or  pork  reached  us  high  as  80  p'.r  cent,  of  tlie  average  price  of  all  these  years.  If 
Mr.  Blaine  will  explain  how  the  people,  then  more  largely  agririiltiiral  than  now,  start- 
ing with  a  vast  mass  of  private  indebtedness,  contracted  in  a  highly  inflated  period,  and 
compelled  to  sell  their  products  lower  than  at  any  time  for  twenty  years  liefore  or  forty 
years  after,  could  be  restored  to  "  prosperity  wide  and  general  at  once,"  by  the  passage 
of  a  law  that  enabled  a  few  hundred  or  thousand  manufacturers  to  demand  and  obtain 
liigher  prices  for  their  products  from  the  people,  it  will  be  an  evidence  of  intellectual 
power  tliat  even  he  has  not  been  supported  to  possess. 

The  truth  is,  the  recuperntion  in  business  came  about  in  a  way  almost  identical  with 
that  which  took  place  after  the  calamitous  times  of  1819-1820.  The  worthless  paper 
money  passed  out  of  existence.  Sounder  banking  institutions  were  established,  which 
provided  a  better  currency.  Specie  began  to  flow  in;  our  net  importations  in  1848 
amounted  to  $21,000,000:  in  1847  to  $22,000,000.  The  hard  times  induced  the  strictest 
economy.  Debts  were  slowly  liquidated  or  compromised.  Gradually  prices  began  to 
rise,  and  by  thrift  and  economy,  industry  and  enterprise,  and  bountiful  harvests,  the 
clouds  that  lowered  all  arouucl  us  with  so  much  gloom  were  slowly  dispelled.  Mr. 
Blaine  supposes  that  "  plenty  and  prosperity  followed  the  enactment  of  the  protective 
tarif!  us  if  by  magic."  And  this  is  the  man  who  assumes  to  instruct  his  countrymen  on 
tb''>  problems  of  tlieir  flnancial  history! 

The  inference  from  all  this  is  tljut  Mr.  Blaine  must  believe  that  if  we  should  have 
another  wild  period  of  puper-money  inflation  and  reckless  speculation,  followed  by  gen- 
eral disaster  and  univereiul  break  up.  there  is  no  possiiile  relief  except  by  waving  again 
the  "magic"  wand  of  protection,  and  doubling  tariff  taxes,  however  high  they  may  be 
to  start  with. 

THE    "rilBB  TRADE  TABIPFS"   OF   1846  AND   1867. 

In  1846  the  tariff  was  reduced  to  a  revenue  basis.  It  was  in  force,  with  little  if  any 
change,  until  1857.  Mr.  Blaine  cannot  deny  that  throughout  all  these  years  the  country 
enjoyed  the  highest  degree  of  prosperity.  But  he  seeks  in  extraneous  causes  the  secret 
of  this  prospo'iiy.  (In  case  a  calamity  comes  under  a  low  tariff,  he  can  And  no  other 
cause  for  it.  though  there  be  a  thousand  as  glaring  as  tiie  sun  at  noonday.)  The  flrst 
reason  he  alleges  as  the  cause  of  the  general  prosperity  is  the  Mexican  war.  He  claims 
that  the  taking  of  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  flfty  thousand  men  from  the  productive 
labors  of  peaceful  life  to  send  them  to  Mexico  to  carry  on  the  war,  at  the  expense  of  a 
great  sum  of  money,  was  a  source  of  prosperity  that  "  reached  all  localities  and  affected 
all  interests."  I  am  not  going  to  dispute  with  Mr.  Blaine  about  this.  I  suppose  he  is 
the  only  man  in  the  world  who  does  not  believe  it  is  utter  folly.  I  suppose  there  is  no 
other  man  who  does  not  know  that  war,  always  and  everywhere,  retards  the  growth  of 
wealth.  It  would  be  just  as  sensible  to  assert  that  the  huuian  system  is  strengthened 
and  made  more  vigorous  by  a  fever. 

Mr.  Blaine  next  names  the  Irish  famine  as  one  of  the  reasons  of  prosperity.  This 
occurred  in  1847,  and  did  unquestionably  add  somewhat,  for  a  year  or  two,  to  the  price 
of  breadstuffs.  But  it  made  no  demand  for  additional  cotton  or  tobacco  It  made  no 
call  on  us  for  manufuctured  goods.  As  an  influence  affecting  our  prosperity  through  a 
long  period  of  time,  it  was  not  important. 

Mr.  Blaine  next  mentions  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  as  one  of  the  causes  that 
added  to  our  prosperity.  Granted.  Between  1846  and  1860  the  production  of  gold  and 
silver  in  this  country  was  a  little  le.ss  than  $650,000,000.  When  Mr.  Blaine  comes  to  con- 
sider the  growth  of  wealth  in  this  country  since  1860.  he  does  not  appear  to  see  that  a 
production  of  the  precious  metals  of  nearly  $1,800,000,000  between  1860  and  1880  had 
any  influence  in  producing  results  that  he  vaunts  so  much.  He  is  quite  as  careful  also 
to  leave  out  of  any  estimate  of  the  increase  of  wealth  since  I860  the  enormous  addition  to 
that  wealth  caused  by  the  production  of  petroleum.  When  hunting  for  excuses  for  our 
prosper»4y  under  a  low  tariff,  he  can  see  and  magnify  every  advantageous  influence. 
When  considering  the  increiisc  of  wealth  under  a  high  tariff,  he  shuts  his  eyes  to  every, 
thing  else  and  cries,  "  Behold  what  protection  has  done!" 

Mr.  Blaine  next,  and  last,  alleges  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  prosperity  of  this  copn. 
try  between  1840  and  1857  cue  Crimean  war.  He  says:  "The  export  of  manufactures 
from  England  and  France  was  checked;  the  breadstuffs  of  Russia  were  blockaded  and 
could  not  reach  the  markets  of  the  world.    An  extraordinary  stimulus  was  given  to  all 


J 


COMl'AnATfVE  PROSPKRITY  UNDER  VARIOUS  TARIFFS. 


48 


if  any 
uatry 
secret 
other 
first 
aims 
clive 
of  a 
ected 
be  is 
is  no 
ih  of 
,beued 


8  coitu- 
actures 
ed  and 
to  all 


forms  of  trade  in  the  United  States."  If  Mr.  Hlaiuc  means  in  the  first  clause  of  this 
statement  tliat  tiie  exi>ort  of  English  and  French  manufactured  ^oods  to  the  United 
States  was  checked,  I  ciiullcnge  the  truth  of  the  statement.  The  allied  forces  landed  in 
the  Crimea  in  September,  18M.  They  retired  in  July,  1856.  Our  imported  dutiable 
goods,  largely  manuTacturcs  from  England  and  France,  amounted  in  1851  to  $310,000,- 
000;  ill  1862  to  $207,000,000:  in  1858  to  $208,000,000.  These  were  tlie  three  years  Itctore 
the  war.  In  1854  they  amouuted  to  $297,000,000;  in  1855  to  $257,000,000;  in  1856  to 
$810,000,000.  Tliese  were  the  three  years  «)f  the  war.  These  figuies  show  that  we  im- 
ported during  the  three  years  of  the  war  $180,000,000  more  of  dutiable  goods  than  we 
did  in  the  precediug  three  years.  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  there  was  such  iin  arrent  in 
the  importation  of  goods  as  to  cause  an  increase  of  price  in  those  manufactured  liere. 
The  imnortatitm  kept  down  the  price  of  home  made  goods  to  the  low  point  of  protection 
affordeu  b}'  the  tariflf.  Like  the  Irish  famine,  the  sole  direct  effect  of  the  war  was  to  en- 
hance somewliat  for  two  or  three  years  the  prices  of  our  breadstuffs.  But  Mr.  IJIaine 
says  that  "an  extraordinary  stimulus  was  given  to  all  forms  of  trade  in  the  United 
States."  Manufacturing,  I  take  it,  is  a  brancTi  of  "trade."  If  the  fact  l)e,  as  Mr.  HIaine 
states  it,  that  an  extraordinary  stimulus  was  given  to  manufacturing,  under  the  very  low 
tariff  then  in  force,  the  explanation  of  it  is  to  be  foind  in  tlie  fact  that  the  manufactu''. 
ing  interest  partook  fully,  as  it  always  will  under  natural  conditions,  and  without  arti- 
ficial aids,  of  the  general  ])ro8perity  of  tlie  great  agri(Hiltural  interests. 

People  who  remove  to  the  new  States  of  the  West  from  tlie  older  portions  of  the 
country,  as  a  rule,  always  do  so  in  the  hope  and  expectation  of  thereby  improving  their 
circuin£tauces.  In  order  to  do  that  they  are  willing  to  deprive  themselves  and  their 
families  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  old  seliletnents.  In  order  to  do  that  tlicy 
arc  willing  to  break  up  old  and  fond  associations  with  kindred  and  friends.  In  order  to 
do  that  they  accept  all  the  hard  conditions  incident  to  life  in  a  new  and  unimproved 
country.  For  that  purpose  they  struggle  and  toil  and  pinch  themselves  and  fainilies 
throusrii  long  years. 

This  being  the  case,  it  would  only  be  reasonable  to  expect  that  property  should 
accumulate  more  rapidly,  in  proportion  to  population,  in  the  Western  than  in  the  East- 
ern States.  Under  natural  couditions  that  ought  to  be  true;  under  the  low  tariff,  be- 
tween 1846  and  1860  it  was  true.  Every  figure  we  have  conclusively  proves  it  was  true. 
But.  since  1860,  under  the  higli  tariff,  every  fact  and  every  figure  demonstrates  that  the 
natural  and  just  order  of  things  is  changed,  and  that,  in  proportion  to  population,  the 
wealth  of  the  manufacturing  States  of  the  East  is  far  outgrowing  that  of  the  agricultural 
States  of  the  West.  With  all  of  his  ingenuity  Mr.  Blaine  cannot  hide  this  open,  pal- 
piilile  fact.  The  very  figures  he  gives  us  ])rov'es  it  is  true,  and  testifies  to  the  monstrous 
injustice  the  protective  tariff  is  to  the  farmers  of  the  West. 

Mr.  Blaine  is  evidently  greatly  worried  over  the  marked  prosperity  following  tlie  en- 
actment of  the  law  of  1846.  This  prosperity  was  so  general  and  satisfactory  that  all  talk 
of  an  increase  of  tariff  rates  had  long  since  ceased.  The  country  for  the  first  time  since 
1816  was  at  peace  on  the  vexed  question.  Nay,  in  1857  the  representatives  of  the  manu- 
facturing interests  of  New  England  joined  hands  with  the  planters  of  the  S(mth  to  cut 
the  rates  of  <luty  still  lower.  By  a  combination  of  old  Wliigs,  Republicans,  Know- 
Nothiugs,  and  Democrats,  the  bill  was  passed  through  both  houses  of  Congress  by  great 
majorities.  The  bust  evidence  that  a  law  is  a  good  law  is  tliat  for  many  years  it  gives  to 
every  section  of  the  Union,  and  to  every  interest  and  class  of  men  entire  satisfaction. 
That  is  the  glory  of  the  law  of  1846,  as  it  was  the  glory  of  the  low  tariff  of  1789,  which 
gave  such  universal  satisfaction  for  twenty-three  years,  that,  when  it  was  necessary 
to  I'aise  the  duties  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  1812,  Congress  took  care  to  pnt- 
vide  that  on  the  restoration  of  peace  the  old  duties  should  be  restored. 

But  how  has  it  been  under  every  protective  law  we  have  ever  had?  The  period  of 
their  existence  has  always  been  marked  by  exhibitions  of  selfishness,  exhibitions  of 
greedy  and  disgusting  avarice.  ,  The  halls  of  Congress  have  been  thronged,  at  nearly 
every* session,  with  impudent,  niendacious  l)eggars  for  Government  interference  in  favor 
of  private  interests.  As  the  result  of  the  continuance  of  this  system  through  a  long 
series  of  years,  and  after  hundreds  of  large  and  undeserved  fortunes  have  been  created 
by  Qoverumental  favoritism,  we  see  the  recipients  of  the  favor  of  the  Governmeni 
exhausting  human  wit  and  ingenuity,  by  the  machinery  of  "  combinations,"  "  under- 
standings, "pools,"  and  "  Trusts"  in  sucking  the  last  possible  drop  of  blood  from  the 
peo))le  whom  the  Tariff  Law  has  placed  at  their  mercy. 

Of  course  a  protective  tariff  law  always  has  produced  and  always  will  produce 
debate,  contention,  dispute,  and  bitter  controversy.  The  whole  theory  of  protection  is 
founded  on  the  desire  to  take  one  man's  money  and  give  it  to  another  who  has  not 
earned  it.  Of  course,  there  can  be  no  peace,  no  quiet,  no  content  under  such  a  law, 
because  every  well-informed,  conscientious  man  feels  and  knows  that  it  is  an  intolerable 
outrage.  It  is  idle  to  expect,  in  a  free  country,  millions  of  intelligent  men  to  submit  to 
this  legalized  robbery  (Mr.  Gladstone  gives  it  its  right  name),  without  violent  outcry 
and  fierce  resistance. 


-  —V      I  I      ii|iii 


44 


TARIFF  REFORM. 


But  to  ruturii  to  .V[r.  Bhiiuu  'i.s  u  historian  in  tlio  North  American  Heview.  Id  18A7, 
after  eleven  years  of  low  tariffs  and  singular  prosperity,  business  was  arrested  by  a 
collapse  of  speculation.  Unexpectedly  as  thunder  from  a  clear  sky,  the  Ohio  Life  In- 
surance and  Tr'ist  Company  failed.  This  was  one  of  the  oldest  banking  institiitioni}  in 
the  country.  Its  character  was  amone  the  very  highest  and  its  credit  without  limit. 
It  was  prohibited  by  its  charter  from  Tending  money  except  on  mortgage  security  on 
real  estate.  It  had  passed  safely  through  the  hard  times  of  1887-1841.  It  was  sup- 
posed to  be  managed  by  the  most  prudent  men.  That  its  collapse  was  caused  or  induced 
m  any  way  by  the  low  rates  of  duty  has  never  been  alleged,  or  thought  of,  .^r  dreamed 
of  by  any  human  being  that  I  ever  heard  of.  But  the  shock  and  consternation  that  the 
failure  caused  was  general  and  profound.  Men  asked  themselves,  ' '  If  that  bank  could  not 
be  trusted  wliat  one  can  ?  "  Then  at  once  set  in  a  violent  run  on  nearly  all  the  banks  of 
the  country.  Of  course  they  were  not  all  prepared  to  pay  cash  for  their  outstanding 
notes  and  deposits  on  a  moment's  notice.  Many  of  them  were  compelled  to  close  and 
wind  un  business.  For  a  short  time  there  was  confusion  and  embarrassment.  Mr. 
Blaine  aescribcs  tliese  results  as  "flowing  from  the  free-trade  tariff."  That  is  a  purely 
unwarranted  assumption.  He  gives  no  reason  for  so  supposing.  He  talks  of  the 
panic  as  showing  the  "  disastrous  results  of  the  tariff  on  the  permanent  industries 
of  the  country.  There  were  no  disastrous  results  on  any  of  the  "  permanent "  inter- 
ests of  the  country.  No  doubt  that  for  some  time  business  was  interrupted  as  it  always 
will  be  i'iterrupted  by  a  speculative  collapse.  But  confidence  was  speedily  restored,  and 
during  the  years  1858,  1859,  and  1860  it  would  have  taken  a  keen  eye  to  discover  that 
anything  serious  bad  occurred.  Gen.  Qarfield,  who  was  a  careful  student  of  economical 

3uestions,  regarded  1860  as  one  of  the  most  prosperous  years  in  our  history.  So  also 
id  the  author  of  the  Morrill  tariff  himself,  who  said  in  a  speech  in  the  House  (Jan.  34, 
1867)  that  the  year  1860  "  was  a  year  of  af>  large  production  and  as  much  general  pros- 
perity as  any,  perhaps,  in  our  history." — {Cong.  Olobe,  2d  session,  89ih  Congress,  part  I, 
page  724.) 

But  the  panic  of  1857  raged  as  severely  in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Scandinavia, 
South  America,  Australia  and  the  East  Indies  as  it  did  here.  Surely  those  countries 
were  not  affected  in  that  disastrous  way  by  our  low  tariff. 

To  show  that  the  theory  that  the  panic  of  1857  was  caused  by  the  low  tariff;  that 
it  was  of  "  deadly  significance,"  as  showing  the  disastrou$i  results  of  that  tariff,  has  no 
foundation  whatever.  I  ask  attention  to  the  following  facts.  The  market  reports,  ac- 
cepted and  published  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  as  correct,  give  the  following  as  the 
average  New  York  prices  of  our  most  important  articles  of  agricultural  production  for 
the  three  years  immediately  following  the  panic  year  of  1857:  Wheat.  98.02  cents; 
corn,  72.56  cents;  cotton,  11.3  cents;  oats,  44.9  cents;  mess  pork,  |;17.12;  tobacco,  9.4 
cents;  lard,  11.4  cents;  fine  wool,  53.3  cents.  Farming  is  commonly  supposed  to  be 
one  of  uiii  "permanent  industries."  About  one-half  of  our  people  were  in  1860,  and 
still  are,  engaged  in  that  business.  How  do  the  above  prices  compare  with  the  prices  of 
the  same  products  now,  in  this  time,  as  Mr.  Blaine  woub'  have  us  believe,  of  3uch 
al)oun»ling  and  univer.sal  prosperity?  The  Bureau  of  Statist. v..  gives  us  as  the  average 
Ni'W  York  prices  for  the  years  1887,  1888,  and  1889:  Wheat,  88  cents;  corn,  50.1  cents; 
cotton,  9.7  cents;  tobacco,  8.6  cents;  lard,  7.8  cents.  For  the  years  1883, 1884  and  1885, 
the  averapn  price  of  oats  was  37.7  cents,  and  of  mess  pork,  |13.56;  and  for  the  years 
1885,  1886  anil  1887,  the  average  price  of  tine  wool,  33  cents.  But  since  these  averages 
were  made  up  there  has  been  a  very  laige  reduction  in  the  value  of  nearly  all  these  ar- 
ticles. Wheat  is  quoted  as  worth  now  (March  7,  1890),  in  New  York,  %%%  cents;  corn, 
86  cents;  oats,  28^  cents;  mess  pork,  $11.25.  The  Agricultural  Department  estimates 
tho  value  of  our  cereals  (with  an  increased  production)  as  worth  less  for  1889  by  more 
than  1100.000,000  than  the  crop  of  1888  was  worth.  The  Department  also  assures  us 
that  though  there  has  been  a  large  increase  of  live  stock,  it  is  worth  less  to-day  than  it 
was  a  yi-ar  ago  by  $88,000,000. 

In  looking  over  these  figures  it  would  seem  not  unreasonable  that  farmers  should 
again  like  to  try  a  little  of  the  "deadly  significance"  of  the  "disastrous  results"  on 
their  business,  wliich  so  shocks  Mr.  Blaine  when  contemplating  the  condition  of  the 
country  between  1857-1861. 

But  if  Mr.  Blaine's  extravagant  language  does  not  apply  to  the  great  interest  of 
agricidture,  to  what  interest  does  it  apply?  In  1857,  after  agriculture,  perhaps  our 
greatest  single  interest  was  our  shipping.  What  was  the  disastrous  result  of  our  low 
tariff  on  that  industry?  During  the  three  years  after  1857  the  aggregate  American  ship- 
ping that  entered  our  ports  from  foreign  countries  exceeded  that  of  the  three  years  pre- 
ceding 1857  by  689,000  tons.  With  a  population  more  than  twice  as  great  the  American 
shipping  entering  our  ports  from  abroad  has  not  been  as  great  duiing  1887  1888  and 
1889,  by  800,000  tons  as  it  was  during  the  years  1858,  1859  and  1860.  Our  shipping  en- 
gaged in  foreign  trade  was  much  greater  from  and  including  1857-60  than  any  other 
period  of  eq^ual  length  during  our  whole  history.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the 
"  deadly  aigniflcance"  and  the  "  disastrous  results"  that  Mr.  Blaine  has  conjured  up  in 


••  ! 


^# 


COMPAltATIVK  PKOSPEHITY  UNDKR  VAItlOUS  TMiIFF8. 


45 


3t   of 

our 

low 
ship- 

pre- 
rican 

and 
gen- 
other 
,  the 

pin 


bis  imagination  about  tlic  condition  of  business  in  oonHcquence  of  the  low  tarifif  about 
1857-1860  does  not  apply  to  our  shipping  any  more  than  to  our  farming. 

How  was  it  with  the  business  of  our  merchants  T  Our  foreign  commerce  aggre- 
gated over  $260,000,000  more  during  the  three  years  following  1857  than  it  did 
during  the  three  years  immediately  preceding  tliat  year.  Our  exports  and  our  imports 
both  very  largely  increased.  It  ought  to  go  without  saying  that  if  we  had  really  iMjen 
in  tlie  deplorable  condition  that  Mr.  Blaine  fcvki  to  make  us  believe,  our  imports,  at 
least,  should  have  fallen  off.  But  they  did  not,  for  the  simple  reason  that,  in  despite 
of  the  money  panic  and  its  results,  our  people  were  able  to  buy  and  pay  for,  and  did 
buy  and  pay  for,  more  foreign  goods  than  they  had  ever  been  able  to  purchase  before 
by  many  millions  of  dollars  a  year.  In  1856  our  exports  were  more  than  two  and  a 
half  times  as  much  as  they  were  in  the  high  tariff  times  ten  years  before,  and  our  im- 
ports were  two  and  a  half  times  as  much  as  they  weie  ten  years  before.  These  facts 
ought  to  be  absolutely  conclusive  that,  as  far  as  the  mercantile  interests  of  the  country 
were  concerned,  Mr.  Blaine's  history  is  merely  leckless  assertion. 

But  how  about  manufacturing?  The  panic  of  1857  occurred  near  the  close  of  the 
year.  The  census  sta»'slics  of  1860  were  for  the  year  1859.  The  facts  connected  with 
the  general  business  o  ♦he  country  were  collected  pretty  closely  on  the  heels  of  the 
panic.  The  census  of  that  year  disclosed  the  fact  that  there  had  been  an  increase  of 
manufacturing  (capital  and  output)  of  about  86  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  In  every  depart- 
ment of  manufacturing  industry  the  increase  ^  )  been  notable  ;  in  some  it  was  aston- 
ishing. The  increase  covered  all  textile  and  n  i  '.illic  fabrics — wood,  leather,  glass, 
stone — in  short,  everything  then  known  or  in  deniund.  To  assert  that  general  manu- 
facturing was  not  extensively  carried  on  under  uux  low  tariff  would  not  be  true;  to  as- 
sert that  it  was  not  profitable  under  our  low  i  riff  ic  equall"  untrue,  as  is  pioven  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  short  .space  of  I'.n  years  vhe  capital  enrrt  'ed  in  it  was  almost  doubled. 

Mr  Blaine  quotes  President  Buchanan's  racsv-u^e,  m  which  he  is  describing  the 
coua.uoQ  of  things  existing  in  the  midst  of  the  -noHi  intense  period  oi  the  panic  excite- 
ment. No  one  doubts  or  disputes  that  just  nt  \\v\i  time  there  was  a  great  disturbance 
of  business.  No  one  doubts  that  for  a  brief  period  there  was  much  individual  suffer 
ing.  But  the  people  were  not  oppressed  with  liigli  taxes.  The  currency  of  the  country 
was  generally  in  a  sound  condition,  and  in  a  few  months  all  Dianrhes  and  departments 
of  business  were  resumed  with  exceeding  activity,  and  continued  highly  prosperous 
until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war. 

THE  WAR  TARIFFS — 1861   TO  DATB. 

Mr  Blaine  says:  "  In  1860  eight  manufacturing  Stales  of  the  East  (the  six  of  New 
England,  with  New  York  and  Pennsylvania)  returned  an  aggregate  wealth  of  |5,123,- 
000,000.  Twenty  years  afterwards,  by  the  census  of  1880,  the  same  States  returned  an 
aggregate  wealth  of  $16,228,000,000.  The  rate  of  increase  for  the  twenty  years  was 
slightly  more  than  216  per  cent. 

"  Let  us  see  how  the  agricultural  States  fared  during  this  period.  By  the  census  of 
1860,  eight  agricultural  Slates  of  the  West  (Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Nebraska  and  Wisconsin)  returned  an  aggregate  wealth  of  $2,271,000,000. 
Twenty  years  afterwards,  by  the  census  of  1880  (protection  all  the  while  in  full  force), 
these  same  States  returned  an  aggregate  wealth  of  $11,268,000,000.  The  rat-  of  in 
crease  for  twenty  years  was  396  per  cent.,  or  180  per  cent,  greater  than  the  incref'e  in 
the  eight  manufacturing  States  of  the  East."  Take  these  figures  to  be  correct,  there 
are  others  that  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  them  in  order  to  understand  their 
significance.  In  1860  the  population  of  the  six  New  England  States,  with  Pennsylvaiua 
and  New  York,  was-  10,474,252.  Divide  that  number  of  people  into  $5,133,000,000. 
and  we  liave  as  the  per  capita  wealth  of  these  manufacturing  States  in  1860,  $489.  In 
1880  the  population  of  these  States  was  12,824,272.  Divide  that  number  into  the  aggre- 
gate wealth  returned  for  those  Stat'^s  in  that  year,  $16,228,000,000,  and  we  ha\'e  as  \)^h 
per  capita  wealf'  of  New  England,  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  $1265.  This  is  a.i 
increase  in  per  capita  wealth  in  twenty  years  of  $776. 

Now,  take  the  Western  States  named  by  Mr.  Blaine.  In  1860  their  total  popula- 
tion was  5,570,356.  Divide  that  number  into  the  aggregate  wealth  returned— $2,271, 
000,000 — and  we  will  find  that  the  per  capita  wealth  in  these  Western  States  was  $407, 
or  only  $92  less  than  the  Eastern  States.  (Let  it  be  remembered  that  all  these  Stales 
were  newly  settled,  and  mainly  by  persons  who,  at  the  time  of  their  removal  to  the 
West,  possessed  but  little  property,  but  who,  in  starting,  had  acquired,  as  early  as  1860, 
a  per  capita  wealth  more  than  four-fifths  as  large  as  the  richest  and  more  prosperous 
States  of  the  East.)  In  1880  the  eight  Western  States  named  by  Mr.  Blaine  had  a 
popula;rijn  of  11,862,492.  Divide  that  number  into  the  amount  of  wealth  which  they 
possessed  in  1880— $11,268,000.000— and  we  have  as  the  per  capita  wealth  of  these  States 
4949.  These  figures  show  that  the  people  of  these  Western,  agricultural  States  only 
increased  their  per  capita  wealth  $642  in  twenty  years,  while  the  people  of  the  Eastern, 
manufacturing  States  increased  their  per  capita  wealth  $776.    The  difference  of  their 


46 


TA  RIFF  REFORM. 


I  ( 


per  capita  wealth  under  the  low  tariff  was  $82;  under  the  bigli  tariff  for  twenty  years  it 
was  $816. 

There  must  be  no  caviling  about  tliese  figures..  I  wt..  those  used  by  Mr.  Blaine;  and 
the  figures  of  population  are  taken  fiv,;n  the  census  reports  of  1860  and  1880.  Anyone 
can  see  whether  my  calculations  are  correct.  There  is,  however,  good  reason  to  believe 
that  these  figures,  as  I  have  used  them,  do  not  show  the  whole  truth.  If  an  accurate 
estimate  could  be  obtained  of  the  value  of  Western  real  estate,  personal  property.  State 
and  municipal  boiuls  and  railroad  stocks  and  bonds  held  and  owned  by  persons  residing 
in  the  manufacturing  States  of  the  East,  nnd  if  all  the  vast  sum  were  deducted  from  the 
value  of  the  properly  situated  in  and  cretlited  to  the  people  of  the  West,  as  of  right  it 
ought  to  be,  and  added  to  the  wealth  owned  in  the  East,  the  disparity  between  the  |>er 
capita  wealth  of  the  manufacturing  States  and  the  agricultural  States  would  be  far 
greater  than  the  above  figures  show.  That  would  have  been  the  case  in  1880.  But  the 
same  causes  that  enabled  the  manufacturing  States  to  accumulate  wealth  in  proportion 
to  population  between  1860  and  1880  more  rapidly  than  the  agricultural  States  have  con- 
tinued in  as  aggravated  a  form  during  the  whole  period  between  1880  and  1890. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  is  considering  the  low  tariff  period  between  1846  and  1861,  he  is 
compelled  reluclanlly  to  admit  it  was  one  of  great  prosperity.  But  he  immediately 
sets  all  his  wits  to  work  to  find  in  extraneous  causes  the  reasons  for  that  prosperity. 
But  when  considering  the  slow  and  gradual  improvement  that  toolc  place  between  1820 
and  1830,  he  can  find  no  reason  in  all  the  wide  earth  for  it  except  in  repeated  and  large 
enhancement  of  the  protective  tariff  rates  of  1816.  He  takes  no  notice  of  the  fact  that 
the  worthless  irredeemable  paper  money,  so  bitterly  denoimced  by  Col.  Benton  and  Mr, 
Webster,  gradually  gave  place  to  a  better  and  sounder  currency.  He  takes  no  notice  of 
the  fact  that  abo\it  1819  steam  craft  began  to  make  their  appearance  on  the  great  lakes, 
and  on  all  the  Western  and  Southern  rivers,  bringing  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior  of 
the  country  into  cheap  and  rapid  communication  with  distant  peoples  and  foreign 
markets.  The  fact  that  in  1835  the  Erie  Canal  was  completed,  giving  to  western  New 
York,  western  Pennsylvania,  and  northern  Ohio  ready  and  cheap  transportation  for  the 
produce  of  those  large  sections  to  market  seems  to  have  escaped  Mr.  Blaine's  vision. 
Tlie  fact  tiiat  millions  of  acres  of  the  fertile  lands  of  the  West  were  brought  into  c\iifi- 
vation  by  the  most  intelligent  and  energetic  people  of  the  world  during  those  years  is 
given  no  consideration  by  Mr.  Blaine  as  one  of  the  agencies  of  recuperation.  The 
fact  that  the  production  of  cotton  sprang,  as  if  by  magic,  from  200,000  to  more  than 
1,000,000  bales  is  given  no  place  as  a  factor  in  the  improvement  that  took  place.  Would 
it  not  have  been  marvelous  that  such  a  people,  starting  from  such  an  abyss  of  depres- 
sion and  misery  in  1819-1820,  should  not  have  made  m.srked  progress  under  almost  any 
conceivable  system  of  unjust  and  oppressive  taxation?  Those  were  glorious  years,  in 
spite  of  the  onerous  tariff  taxes,  to  all  except  one  class.  The  manufacturers  had  secured 
the  passage  of  a  protective  tariff  law  in  1816,  "  avowedly"  in  their  interests,  to  use  the 
language  of  Mr,  Webster.  But  were  they  satisfied?  No.  For  twelve  long  years  they 
besieged  the  doors  of  Congress  for  ever  crying,  "more."  Again  and  again  duties  were 
raise(i,  until  in  1828,  in  "  ilie  bill  of  abominaTions,"  Congress  glutted  their  avarice  by 
imposing  duties  on  dutiable  goods  approaching  50  per  cent. 

What  credit  can  be  given  to  a  historian  who,  in  reviewing  the  financial  and  busi 
ness  history  of  this  long  period,  can  see  no  reason  for  progress  (but  in  his  opinion  the 
all-sufficient  one)  except  higher  and  higher  and  still  hig^  er  rates  of  tariff  taxes?  If 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  writing  history  so  as  to  make  false  and  deluding  impressions,  [ 
do  not  kjiow  where  to  find  a  more  signal  example  than  in  the  North  American  Review 
article  of  our  brilliant  Secretary  of  State. 


MORAL  QUESTIONS. 

Mr.  Blaine  charges  the  American  Free  Trader  with  insincerity.  lie  says:  "He  is 
ever  presenting  half  truths  and  holding  back  the  other  half,  thus  creating  false  impres- 
sions and  leading  to  false  conclusions."  In  view  of  the  comparison  he  has  made  between 
the  growth  of  the  wealth  of  the  manufacturing  States  of  the  East  and  the  agricultural 
Slatesof  the  VYest  in  twenty  years,  without  noticing  or  paying  the  slightest  attention  to 
this  difference  in  the  increase  of  population,  to  whom  does  his  criticism  most  justly 
apply?  '''be  literature  of  the  world  may  be  searched  in  vain  for  a  more  disingenuous 
and  deceptive  statement  to  make  the  wrong  appear  the  better  cause. 

If  this  is  the  way  talented  and  eminent  men  are  to  write  history  for  the  public  in- 
formation, let  us  at  least  understand  it. 

This  paper  is  alreatiy  too  long  to  follow  Mr.  Blaine  further  in  the  untrustworthy 
history  that  he  is  irjring  to  concoct  to  support  the  decayed  and  falling  edifice  of  Pro- 
tection. Mr.  Blaine  is  welcome,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  to  worship  the  hhleous  super- 
stition with  all  the  frantic  devotion  and  wild  contortion  of  a  howling  dervish  of  the 
desert;  but  when  ho  comes  to  writing  as  history  that  which  is  not  hiBtory,  but  the 
grossest  fiction,  It  Is  a  duty  to  correct  him. 


MORAL  QUESTIONS, 


47 


C    IS 

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It  hHS  not  been  my  purpose  to  enter  into  the  argument  between  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr. 
Qladstone.  Indeed,  it  appears  not  to  have  been  Mr.  Blaine's  purpose  to  enter  into  the 
argument  to  any  great  extent.  I  was  anxious,  as  I  utu  sure  tens  of  thousands  of  other 
men  were,  to  see  what  answer  he  coi;!d  give  lo  the  clear  exposition  of  Free-trade  prin- 
ciples, everywhere  applicable,  given  by  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  of  our  age.  If  any 
man  in  the  world  is  able  to  answer  adequately,  it  ought  to  be  our  brilliant  countryman. 
Has  he  done  that?  Certainly  not.  He  has  not  even  attempted  it.  He  has  evaded  every 
issue  and  taken  refuge  in  a  cloud  of  smoke  and — pretended  history. 

I  cannot  take  ujy  leave,  however,  of  my  old  friend  without  alluding  to  one  or  two 
things  not  directly  involved  in  the  substance  of  the  controversy  between  him  and  Mr. 
Gladstone.  Mr.  Blaine  sneers  at  Mr.  Gladstone  for  declaring  that  protection  is  immoral. 
Indeed!    Can  Mr.  Blaine  see  no  immorality  in  a  law  that  taxes  a  poor  widow  a  higher 

firice  for  her  clothing  and  tliat  of  her  children,  for  her  bedding,  her  coal,  her  dishes,  and 
urniture— for  nearly  everything  she  and  they  need — not  for  the  use  of  the  Government, 
but  to  add  to  the  prosperity  of  those  who  produce  such  articles?  If  Mr.  Blaine  can  see  no 
immorality  in  that,  I  assure  him  that  there  are  millions  of  his  countrymen  whose  con- 
sciences are  keener  than  his  own.  John  Bright  could  see  it  clearly  when  he  held  up  the 
corn  laws  of  England  (no  less  justifiable  than  our  clothing  laws)  as  a  "  crime  of  tne 
deepest  dye." 

In  this  same  connection  Mr.  Blaine  goes  out  of  his  way  to  inform  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and,  as  he  supposes,  to  surprise  him,  with  the  statement  that  out  of.the  fifty  largest 
fortunes  in  the  United  States  not  more  than  one  has  been  derived  from  protected  manu- 
facturing; and  that  the  other  forty-nine  were  acquired  from  "railway  and  telegraph  in- 
vestments, from  real  estate  investments,  from  the  import  and  sale  of  foreign  goods,  from 
banking,  from  speculations  in  the  stock  markets,  from  fortunate  mining  investments, 
from  patented  inventions,  and  more  than  one  from  proprietary  medicines."  Will  Mr. 
Blaine  please  tell  us  how  many  fortunes  among  the  fifty  greatest  fortunes  in  the  United 
States  have  been  derived  from  "real  estate  investments  that  were  made  vastly  profitable 
by  protection,  as,  for  instance,  investments  in  pine  lands  in  Michigan?  Will  he  please 
tell  us  how  many  of  these  immense  fortunes  have  been  made  from  "mining  investments" 
which  were  protected  by  our  tarifif  law,  as  the  copper  and  iron  mines  in  Michigan  and 
all  the  other  mines  of  metal  and  coal  everywhere  in  the  United  States?  Perhaps,  if  Mr. 
Blaine  were  to  go  into  the  subject  carefully,  he  might  be  surprised  to  find  that  not  only 
one  but  many  of  the  largest  fortunes  in  America  were  the  result,  in  some  way,  of  pro- 
tection in  behalf  of  private  interests. 

But  he  says  it  is  safe  to  go  further  and  state  that  among  the  one  hundred  largest 
fortunes  in  the  country  there  are  not  over  five  that  have  been  derived  from  protected 
manufactures.  Well,  that  is  making  progress.  There  is  one  among  the  first  fifty, 
but  there  are  four  among  the  second  fifty.  At  this  rate  among  the  third  fifty  there 
would  probably  be  sixteen,  and  among  the  fourth  fifty  forty-eight,  and  so  on. 

But,  seriouslv,  will  Mr.  Blaine  undertake  to  say  that  among,  say,  five  thousand  of 
the  richest  men  In  America  there  are  not  one-half,  if  not  three-fourths  of  them,  who 
have  made  the  bulk  of  their  fortunes  in  business,  or  investments,  in  which  they  have 
been  personally  assisted  by  the  protective  tariff  ?  It  would  be  exceedingly  unjust  to 
apply  any  hard  terms  to  men  who  have  made  even  great  fortunes  by  their  industry, 
skill,  economy,  inventive  genius,  perseverance  or  sound  judgment.  But  when  the  law 
has  interfered  to  add  to  the  value  of  investments,  or  to  the  profits  of  particular  k'Pds  of 
business,  and  we  find  the  beneficiaries  of  the  law  acquiring  fortunes  far  in  excess  of  any 
they  are  justly  entitled  to  by  any  merit  of  their  own,  we  are  justified  in  arraigning  the 
law  as  a  horrible  instrumentality  of  wrong. 

Mr.  Biaine  betrays  an  uneasy  consciousness  ihat  this  is  true,  when  he  goes  out  of  his 
way  to  explain  that  "  the  evil  effect  of  large  fortunes  is  exaggerated,"  because  under 
our  laws  they  are  apt  to  be  scattered  in  two  or  three  generations.  That  is,  he  sees  no 
everlasting,  irreparable  evil  result  in  the  accumulation,  even  when  aided  by  a  tariff  law, 
of  multitudes  of  colossal  fortunes,  because,  forsooth,  in  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  they 
will  probably  be  scattered.  But  the  question  is  not  whether  these  fortunes  so  acquirecl, 
will  be  held  together  through  all  coming  time,  and  thus  becoming  a  permanent  menace 
to  the  future  liberties  and  welfare  of  the  country.  That  is  not  the  point.  It  is  this:  is 
it  just  and  morally  right  to  tax  more  than  sixty  millions  of  people  to  build  up  a  few 
thousand  vast,  over-grown  fortunes?  The  consolation  that  Mr.  Blaine  offers  to  the 
people  who  have  their  hard  earnings  filched  from  them  for  this  purpose,  is,  that  after 
all,  there  is  nothing  deplorable  about  it,  because  In  one,  two  or  three  generations  (long 
after  the  people  now  living  are  in  their  graves)  these  great  fortunes  will  be  si;attere<l,  or 
dissipated,  by  the  misfortunes,  extravagance,  follies  and  vices,  of  the  children,  grand 
children  or  great-grand-children  of  those  who,  aided  by  an  unjust  and  cruel  law  have 
accumulated  them.  This  is  the  soothing  powder  that  Mr.  Blaine  gives  the  people  to 
make  them  oblivious  to  the  inconvenience  of  having  their  money  extracted  from  them 
to  confer  it  upon  the  special  pets  of  the  law.  It  remains  lo  be  seen  whetiier  the  medi- 
cine will  have  the  desired  effect 


m 


48 


TARIFF  REFORM. 


\ 


We  have  made  arrangemente  to  keep  on  hand  a  supply  of  books  and  pamphlets  on 
the  subject  of  the  tariff  wherever  published,  and  to  forward  them  direct — upon  order 
with  remittance— at  rates  given,  which  include  postage. 

These  arrangements  have  been  made,  not  as  part  of  the  Club's  work  of  distribution, 
but  as  a  matter  of  convenience  to  our  members  and  correspondents.  The  prices  of  books 
are  the  regular  retail  rates.  The  pamphlets  are  marked  at  a  price  which  will  pay  the 
expense  of  handling  and  postage  on  orders  for  single  numbers. 

Twenty  per  cent,  discount  on  orders  of  five  or  more  copies  of  any  book.  Pamphlets 
marked  *  can  be  supplied  in  large  editions  at  greatly  reduced  rates.  It  is  intended  that 
this  list  shall  include  the  most  available  current  literature  on  the  subject,  and  it  will  be 
added  to  from  time  to  time. 

BOOKS. 

Sophisms  of  Protection.    F.  Bastiat $1  00 

Protectionism.     Wm.  G.  Sumner 1  00 

Protection  or  Free  Trade  ?    Henry  George cloth,  $1.50;  paper,      85 

The  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States.     F.  W.  Taussig 1  25 

The  Wa^es  Question.     Francis  A.  Walker 8  60 

Destructive   Intluence   of  the  Tariff  upon  Manufactures  and   Ck>mmeTce.    J. 

Schoenhof 75 

Our  Merchant  Marine.     David  A.  Wells 1  00 

Recent  Economy  Changes.    David  A.  Wells 8  00 

PAMPHIiKTS.  ,     * 

Primer  of  Tariff  Reform.    David  A.  Wells 10 

Relation  of  the  Tariff  to  Wages.     David  A.  Wells 10 

Protection  and  Wages.     Henry  George 10 

*  Tariffs  vs.  Industry.     A.  B.  Farquhar 10 

*  "  Protection  the  Farmer's  Friend. "    Thomas  G.  Shearman 10 

Decay  of  our  Ocean  Mercantile  Marine, — Its  Cause  and  Cure.    David  A.  Wells. ..  25 

DTOS.   OF    "TARIFF   BEFORM.'* 

Per  No.  Per  100  Per  1000 
•Comparison,  Item  by  Item,  of  the  Tariff  as  it  now  stands,  the 
Tariff  as  left  by  the  Mills  Bill,  and  the  Tariff  proposed  by 

the  Senate  Bill 10  6  00  60  00 

*  Free  Raw  Materials.     Why  American  Wages  are  High,  and  How 

They  Can  Be  Made  Higher.    J.B.Sargent 10  100  7  60 

*  Labor.  Wages,  and  Tariffs.     By  John  De  Witt  Warner 10  3  00  25  00 

*  Wool  and  the  Tariff.     By  John  De  Witt  Warner 10  3  GO  25  00 

*  How  Monopoly  Bought  the  Presidency 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Salt  and  the  Tariff 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Tinned  Plate  and  the  Tariff 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Exports  of  Manufactures  and  the  Tariff 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Farming  and  the  Tariff 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Ireland  and  Tariffs.    By  Gilbert  D.  Lamb 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Hamilton  and  "  Protection" 10  3  00  25  00 

*  Clay  and  Tariffs 10  2  00  15  00 

*  The  Socialism  of  Protection.     By  Julius  S.  Grinnell 10  1  00  6  00 

*  Democratic  Tariff  Doctrine 10  8  00  25  00 

*  Republican  Tariff  Sense 10  2  00  15  00 

*  Dairy  Farming  and  the  Tariff.     By  J.  Alex.  Lindquist 10  8  00  25  00 

*  Small  Fruits  and  the  Tariff.     By  J.  Alex.  Lindquist 10  1  00  7  50 

*  Restriction  vs.  Opportunity.     By  Hugh  McCulloch    - 10  1  00  7  60 

*  The  Wool  Question.     By  William  Lloyd  Garrison 10  1  00  7  60 

*  Shipping,  Tariffs  and  Subsidies.    By  Gustav  H.  Schwab 10  6  00  

•Grapes  and  the  Tariff 10  2  00  16  00 

*  Copper,  Br!.8S  and  the  Tariff.     By  J.  Alexander  Lindquist 10  8  00  20  00 

*  Mr.  Blaine  on  Tariffs.     By  J.  Q.  Smith 10  2  00  10  00 

Please  remit  all  sums  less  than  $5.00  in  postage  stamps,  postal  notes,  or  registered 
letter.  All  checks  and  drafts  should  be  payable  to  the  order  of  "Ridform  Clttb, 
Tariff  Reform  Committee. 


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